The terrible demon of competitiveness that grew in me when I saw how good Tim Molloy’s work was.

3. What – about your own comics – made you happiest during this round?

Well, I am a bit procrastinatory, and a bit of a perfectionist, so having to do a comic every 4 days had an impact on my health and wellbeing, but they are still pages I am happy with… well, maybe not the slapstick on about the corpse in the cement mixer; anyone could have drawn that…

4. What – about your fellow rehabbers’ comics – made you happiest during this round?

I was happy to see Tim Molloy loosen up and start to tell us things about himself, he’s an enigmatic fellow. John Weeks and Michael Fikaris were like little engines, consistent and good.

5. Are you rehabilitated now?

No. I know I will suffer a relapse and go back to procrastinating and ‘research’ and wandering about.

6. Where can people see your comics in the future?

If I can find a way to put *Lucky pages online without the people who the comic is about seeing them… stay tuned.

I was hoping to do some stories that were a little more honest, and raw.
I wanted to get back to the basics of just telling a story with our wonderful medium. It seems that too often I have to delve into a strange mystical space to come up with my comics, and then spend untold aeons getting every little detail in the art perfect. It can be very tiring, and seems sometimes to defeat the incredible communicative powers of comics! I’ve been doing wordless comics for like two years now, and was beginning to think that part of my brain might be atrophying!
I think rehab helped me with this!

2. What was the most unexpected thing about this round?
Despite my total awareness of just how busy my life has got, the fact that I only allowed myself 15 minutes whilst drunk to do the last one really gave a bit of a shock. I also got quite a thrill from doing something so sloppy! Truth be told, I didn’t think I was quite drunk enough when I sat down to do it, so I had another glass of wine to get me more ‘in the mood.’

3. What – about your own comics – made you happiest during this round?
Using English generally. I was really happy with ‘Frightening Orbits.’ I’m going back to South East Asia later this year, and really want to turn some of whatever happens over there into some new work. It was also nice going on a little trip down memory lane with my first kiss story.

4. What – about your fellow rehabbers’ comics – made you happiest during this round?
Jo’s stuff really blew me away, I haven’t seen as much of her work as I would have liked, mostly Tango stuff. I think ‘I kissed a Girl’ was my favourite. Beautiful! John was consistently hilarious. Michael’s strips were a perfect mix of the obtuse and the accessible. I liked those little windows into situations that evoke a sense of both familiarity and weirdness.

5. Are you rehabilitated now?
Yes. Kind of. I can imagine myself back-sliding if I’m not careful.

This was initially mooted as a Malvern Stars round. When asked if he would play ‘Loser’ live Beck deadpanned: “Yeah, we like to bring back the hits.” Similar sentiments: there’s so much new stuff being done, and many projects to aspire to.
I’ll invoke the past; be informed by it, but the prescient lyricism of Neil Diamond definitively states, we are ‘Headed For The Future’. We inhabit time and move through it – and art such as music and comics clearly exist in sequential format with our thermodynamic arrow as backbone and structural foundation.
2. What was the most unexpected thing about this round?

I was pleasantly surprised about how productive we all were – in our own way. Jo really put us all to shame with her yummy color work.

3. What – about your own comics – made you happiest during this round?

Actually, the ‘filler’ strips I did to buffer myself so I wouldn’t ‘go Britney’ turned out to be the centerpiece. I’ve had a uniformly (if not enthusiastically) positive response. I’m happy doing quicker, crappier comics, being a QuickerDrawer. If it’s a good idea I can always redraw and polish it later. I’m thinking of doing a daily strip a la Chris Downes.

Also, I totally PWN3D Fikaris, Carvan and Helen and I *Liked* It. Hee hee.
It was fun to ‘do’ other people’s styles and riff on that. I have some more ideas in the same vein. Molloy, Waite, watch yer backs. Maybe Athonk / Bernard C. are right, Oz comics are primarily made by the community for the community. That’s a topic for discussion in another venue perhaps.

4. what – about your fellow rehabbers’ comics – made you happiest during this round?

I’m happy just to be allowed in the clubhouse when you’ve got such heavy hitters – with more established oeuvres – than my own teeny output. I’m more of a panel beater than a panel maker. Past credibility be damned. That’s a nice feature of Rehab, the door is open to all.

Overall, I liked Tim’s experimentation, he ranged from serious to silly, and the autobio was really quite sweet. I only know Jo a little bit but I really adore her professional standards combined with such a unique lateral viewpoint. And it was a treat to see Michael operating on two levels, I think it’s a really accessible entry point for anyone who wants to read more. We just take him for granted.

I really can’t think of a dud in the bunch. Except for myself, and I practiced truth in advertising. So there.

5. Are you rehabilitated now?
I’m not sure I was ever ‘habilitated’ to begin with.
But I’m producing at a higher ratio so, overall yeah.

Anyone who a) intends to publish and b) isn’t drawing at least a page a day should consider Comic Rehab.
Think of it like Alcoholics Anonymous. Most people who are rehabbed need to show up at a meeting, even in another town, to get some support from people with healthy habits. (Maybe you should consider franchising this model.) And with a mix of creative personalities, it’s never gonna be dull.

Yeah, just because I’m not in Oz I’d enjoy seeing Gregory MacKay, Kieran Mangan, Alice Mongrovius, Anna Brown, and David Nichols. Shagsy too, though she’s not big on labels and completely over ‘scenes’. If I had a nickel for every comics happening Shags helped make *fun*, I’d be able to buy her a dozen chai lattes. I’m not sure if they NEED it, but it’d be fun to see them mix it up.